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Speakonia
Speakonia is a text-to-speech program created by the company CFS-Technologies (founded by Chris Schuster) used mainly in the creation of YouTube videos; in particular, "Microsoft Sam reads...", for example. Arguably the most famous voices are Microsoft Sam, Microsoft Mike, Microsoft Mary, and Peter (Adult Male #1) as Radar Overseer Scotty. Overview Speakonia itself is fairly simple to use for the average user, regardless of its skill level. The graphical user interface is similar to Notepad, in a technical way. A user simply has to type what they want the voice to say, and when they click the button that looks like a play button, the selected text-to-speech voice will read it. The user can change the voice at any time by going to the drop-down menu labeled Voice under the Speech Properties, and selecting another voice. The user can also change the speed and volume of the voice with the sliders below the drop-down menu. It can also be installed in several languages. Interface The Speakonia interface consists of 4 main elements: the menu bar, the toolbar, the text box, and the "Speech Properties" Box. The Menu Bar is mostly for working with saving and exporting files, as well as registering the program. It is not the main focus of the program. The toolbar has some saving feature shortcuts, as well as commands for playing, pausing and stopping the voice from reading the text that has been entered into the text box. The Text Box is where you will spend most of your time in the program. You simply type what you want the voice to say into the text box. Lastly, the Speech Properties window is the handiest tool in Speakonia. It allows you to switch between voices quickly, change the speed at which the voice speaks, change it's pitch and volume. This window also has the handy-dandy "Lexicon" feature, which allows you to change the pronounciation of a word if the voice does not say it correctly. Microsoft Voices By default, Speakonia is included with at least 11 voices. This number can be greatly increased by installing a separate package of voices, called simply: Microsoft voices Mary, Sam, and Mike. Once the download is complete, install the package and the Microsoft voices will be available for you to use, along with a number of other voices (RoboSoft 1-6, whispers, etc.). Exporting as .WAV Speakonia has an option to export the spoken text as .WAV audio files. In order to export a file as a .WAV audio file, you must register Speakonia. To register, one must simply give their name and E-mail address. From there, you will receive a code by e-mail and once registered, you will unlock all features of Speakonia. Registration is essential for anyone who wishes to use the voices in their YouTube videos. Trivia *The Default Adult Voices of Speakonia are actually adapted from the Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice voices. They have been renamed also. *There are no pitch, speed and volume indicators to display levels of pitch, speed and volume. The only way is through a Registry Editor. *The Microsoft Voices included in Windows XP differ from the ones in Speakonia, with modified speech patterns. Instead it matches Windows 2000 Microsoft Sam. *CFS-Technologies no longer supports Speakonia, but still has the program available for download on its site. (also available on the CNET download site) *Speakonia will not work with Windows RT. *Test voice of every TTS Voices are: "This is a test for Speakonia." *To use the full potential of Speakonia, the following registration key is needed: **Name: Unlimited License **Email: none@needed.com **Reg. Code: SPK-174101-172083 References NOTE: The Mediafire links may not work. If it fails, use the Google Drive links. *Download Link: http://www.cfs-technologies.com/home/?id=1.4 *Mediafire links provided by Pieboy6000 **Speakonia: http://www.mediafire.com/?21142f5uq5u4ket **Microsoft voices (Sam, Mike, Mary and RoboSoft voices): http://www.mediafire.com/?e4hkxgt5jbsxu72 *The other voices (such as British voices) can no longer be downloaded from the Speakonia website. They can however, be downloaded from here, provided by Ducky. More links are available for the voices (which include more voices than previously available) either here or here. Category:Speakonia Category:Programs Category:Awesome Category:Protagonists Category:SAPI4 Voices